Bruins' focus was little fuzzy

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PASADENA It was halftime now and who knows what the central topic of discussion was inside the UCLA locker room?

We do know this much: There were plenty of available talking points.

The Bruins' total of four first downs.

Their offense shriveling after its opening possession.

Their defense having already surrendered a 100-yard rusher.

And what was happening back out on the field? They were still celebrating an old victory, the one over USC, the one that had been over for a week.

The cheerleaders were ringing the victory bell and someone was shouting into a microphone about the Bruins' newly discovered football greatness.

Meanwhile, back in the present, the Bruins trailed comfortably in a game they eventually would lose uncomfortably, 35-17, to Stanford.

The performance Saturday suggested a team that was unable to summon the proper effort and focus for a second consecutive week. The Bruins, in order to be taken seriously, need to be better than that. Much better.

In other words, get over it UCLA. If this program wants to be treated big-time again, it has to act like its season is larger than just a single game against the Trojans.

Coach Jim Mora wasn't buying our theory, but then doing so would have placed the onus on him and his staff for not properly readying the Bruins.

“We're pretty consistent in our approach each week,” he claimed. “I didn't see a whole lot of difference in our preparation. I didn't see a whole lot of difference in how we approached the game.”

Asked if he would say his team was as mentally set this Saturday as it was last Saturday, Mora said, “Yeah, I would.”

And that should frighten UCLA fans, seeing how these same two teams will play Friday in Palo Alto in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Stanford is a monster of an opponent, a team certainly better than UCLA. But the Cardinal has been beaten twice and had a redshirt freshman quarterback making only his third career start.

Yet, based on what happened here Saturday, it's hard to imagine the Bruins closing an 18-point gap in six days.

Fresh off the stirring, energizing, even historic victory over the Trojans, the Bruins played flatly and were served a steaming dish of hangover helper by the bigger, more physical, more disciplined Cardinal.

UCLA went the entire second quarter without a first down. The Bruins were called for 135 yards in penalties. They gave up seven sacks. They dropped passes. They missed more tackles than a good team does.

It was so poor that afterward Mora faced repeated questions about if he was less than committed to winning, knowing a victory instead would have matched UCLA against former-No. 1 Oregon in the Pac-12 final.

“The only way you learn to win is you go for it every single time you step on the field,” Mora said as a denial. “And if you don't do that you cheat everybody. You cheat yourself. You cheat your players. You cheat your alumni. … We're trying not to do that. We're trying to be great.”

The truth is the Bruins had two very discouraging options moving forward. They weren't favored in this game and weren't going to be favored against the Cardinal or Ducks on Friday.

Still, it doesn't seem too demanding to have expected UCLA to be more competitive here. At one point Saturday, the Bruins trailed by 25.

Sure, it's understandable that coming back off the high of whipping the Trojans would be a tough assignment for a bunch of young, distractible players, none of whom had ever beaten USC.

But you know what? Stanford had an emotional victory last week, too. On the road. In overtime. Against an Oregon team that had aspirations much higher than the Rose Bowl.

And the Cardinal somehow garnered the energy and the edge to come out Saturday — on the road, again — and play like a group attempting to ramp up for the Pac-12 title game.

The Bruins made a statement last week and had a chance to underline it. But they dragged their knuckles across the page and smudged the ink.

This game offered the chance for a significant leap in respect for a program that hasn't been terribly respected in recent years. Instead, the Bruins played like — and this won't be easy for UCLA fans to read —
the same old Bruins.

In one season, UCLA and Mora have traveled a long way. They had the chance to go farther still against Stanford.

They instead took a detour that now sends them to Northern California, where a shot at instant redemption awaits.

It's another great opportunity to accelerate forward for the Bruins, who also had a great opportunity Saturday.

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